Recent reviews by soundandvision editors

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $1,500
AT A GLANCE
Plus
Generally neutral sound reproduction
Dolby Atmos and DTS:X spatial enhancement
Ample level for serious listening to both music and movies
Minus
No physical surround-speaker option
Subwoofer-to-soundbar integration is tricky
THE VERDICT
Sony&rsquo;s high-end soundbar-subwoofer twosome delivers natural, tightly imaged, Atmos/DTS:X-abetted sound along with striking, understated good looks.
Soundbars are marching relentlessly up-market, and Sony is right there with the Dolby Atmos- and DTS:X-capable HT-ST5000, which carries a list price of $1,500 and is being widely promoted this holiday season at $1,298 from the major retailers. It checks all the latest boxes: scarily slim, seriously wireless (including a wireless subwoofer), and no-rear-speakers faux surround sound.

M16 Speaker System
Performance
Build Quality
Value
B10 Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $4,050 as reviewed
AT A GLANCE
Plus
High transparency
Equalized subwoofer
Wall-hanging surrounds
Minus
Manual sub EQ requires expertise
THE VERDICT
Revel draws on Harman&amp;rsquo;s world-class engineering depth to produce immaculate high-end sound&amp;mdash;this time, at an extremely reasonable price.
Audiophiles (myself included) often point out that high-end audio is stigmatized compared with other product categories. High-end cars, high-end wine, high-end watches: All attract aficionados who don&amp;rsquo;t mind paying a stiff premium to get the best of the best. And if an average onlooker ventures an opinion at all, it&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;nice watch!&amp;rdquo; But when a bleeding-edge speaker or amp takes the stage, the applause of the cognoscenti mixes with heckling from the peanut gallery. High-end audio has long been subject to that extra measure of skepticism.

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $500
AT A GLANCE
Plus
11 drivers in system, including side tweeters
Separate surround speakers
8-inch wireless sub
Minus
Cabinet resonance in sub and sats
No stereo mode
Odd remote volume-key positioning
THE VERDICT
The Shockwafe Pro 7.1 is a beautifully designed soundbar that delivers solid surround performance, especially with movies.
Founded in 1948, Nakamichi became best known in the 1970s for building the booming audio industry&amp;rsquo;s highest-end cassette decks, both under the company&amp;rsquo;s own name and for other brands. Nakamichi pioneered three-head decks, which used the extra head to read and monitor a recording in progress. The company has also dabbled in CD changers, A/V receivers, and even TVs, and they provided audio systems for the Toyota Lexus from 1989 to 2001.

Persona 3F Speaker System
Performance
Build Quality
Value
Persona SUB Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $31,000 as reviewed
AT A GLANCE
Plus
Beryllium tweeter and midrange drivers
Hand-polished, high-gloss finish
Slender, curved cabinets
Minus
Expensive
Heavy
THE VERDICT
Paradigm set out to create the best, state-of-the-Paradigm-art speakers the company has ever produced, bringing together top-notch cabinet construction and finishing capabilities and advanced driver technologies in hopes of achieving something greater than the sum of its already great parts. They&amp;rsquo;ve succeeded.
Paradigm, the Canadian loudspeaker company founded in 1982, has a long and respectable history of building excellent-sounding, great-looking speakers at relatively affordable prices&amp;mdash;not outrageously expensive but not stupidly cheap, either. Somewhere along the way, though, somebody at Paradigm accidentally said out loud at a company meeting: &amp;ldquo;What if cost were, well, not no object, but at least less of an object? What if we combined all our best technologies and maybe threw in a bit of new stuff, too? Just how awesome of a speaker could we make? We should try that someday.&amp;rdquo; And thus the company&amp;rsquo;s latest and greatest-ever series of speakers was born.

Who doesn&rsquo;t love staying up late and watching a guilty-pleasure movie while the rest of the household sleeps peacefully? The problem is that you can&rsquo;t turn up the volume without fear of waking them or the neighbors. The Sennheiser Flex 5000 turns any headphone into a wireless option designed to let you watch TV using your favorite wired headphones. Plus it has features that help make TV audio clearer and enhances dialogue for better intelligibility.

W Studio Soundbar System
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
W9 Wireless Speaker
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
W7 Wireless Speaker
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
W Amp Amplifier
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $3,295 as reviewed
AT A GLANCE
Plus
Stellar audio quality
Sleek-looking
components
Minus
Android app is pretty basic
iOS app very limited
Doesn&amp;rsquo;t currently support true high-res listening
THE VERDICT
The speakers sound amazing and the W Studio soundbar is a home run even without its multiroom capabilities, but the limited Play-Fi app for streaming leaves Def Tech&amp;rsquo;s W system lagging behind the best multiroom systems.
For a while, audio manufacturers seemed resigned to give it the ol&amp;rsquo; &amp;ldquo;lie back and think of England&amp;rdquo; routine when it came to accepting Sonos as the dominant force in the wireless audio world. Sure, they might not have liked it, but they weren&amp;rsquo;t offering any compelling alternatives of their own. And while there had been some challengers in the past, most fell well short of the Sonos benchmark and quickly faded.
This tide has changed lately, however, and the war for wireless audio is heating up. Multiple systems are now offering their spin on wireless music distribution and hoping to take a bite out of the Wi-Fi audio pie. And unlike past attempts, several of these new solutions are not only good, they&amp;rsquo;re great. Darryl Wilkinson recently reviewed two top rivals for Sonos&amp;rsquo; throne, Bluesound (S&amp;amp;V, June 2014) and Denon&amp;rsquo;s HEOS (S&amp;amp;V, January 2015). Now, well-regarded speaker manufacturer Definitive Technology is throwing its hat into the ring by embracing Play-Fi in its new Wireless Collection.

Audio Performance
Video Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $1,000 At A Glance: Hybrid switching/vacuum tube amplifier &amp;bull; Glass fiber speaker cones &amp;bull; Tilting drivers in towers for front-height channels
The vacuum tube has an honored place in the audio timeline. It preceded stereo, the LP, and of course everything digital. When tubes gave way to the solid-state transistor, consumer electronics began its steady march toward lighter weight, lower cost, reduced heat dissipation, and greater energy efficiency. Entire new product categories were born&amp;mdash;such as the portable transistor radio, the distant forebear of today&amp;rsquo;s smartphones and iPods. Solid-state technology further democratized audio in the 1970s as Japan exported mass-market stereo receivers to music lovers on a budget. By the time home theater and surround sound got underway, tubes had long since been left behind by the mainstream. One by one, all the tubes winked out. Or did they?

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $3,499 At A Glance: Automatic speaker discovery and channel assignment &amp;bull; Uncompressed 24-bit wireless digital audio &amp;bull; No AVR needed
Not long ago, FedEx deposited a 7.1channel HTIB from Aperion Audio outside my door. It&amp;rsquo;s not really fair to call it a home theater in a box because the system actually comes in seven boxes and sells for $3,499. But since it includes source switching and amplification, it technically qualifies as an HTIB, albeit a rather unusual one. Aperion Audio prefers the term preconfigured home theater system. Normally, setting up this sort of home theater package would entail speaker wires crisscrossing the floor accompanied by the requisite grumbling, stripping of wires, and fumbling with speaker terminals. In this case, though, the Aperion speakers&amp;mdash;a pair of towers, a center channel, a subwoofer, and two pair of satellite speakers&amp;mdash;come out of their boxes, get placed in their appropriate spots in the room, have each one&amp;rsquo;s power cord plugged into the nearest AC outlet&amp;hellip;and that&amp;rsquo;s it.

Audio Performance
Video Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $600 At A Glance: Denon entry-level AVR &amp;bull; Boston Acoustics sat/sub set &amp;bull; Acceptable performance
Eliminating nonessentials sounds easier than it is. A year ago, I went through my clothes and filled six shopping bags with shirts and pants I knew I&amp;rsquo;d never wear again. Just a month ago, I repeated the exercise and darn if I didn&amp;rsquo;t fill another bag. If I&amp;rsquo;d exerted myself, I could have filled two. So I felt a certain respect as I cracked open the Denon DHT-1513BA carton and moved its contents to my rack and speaker stands&amp;mdash;because I knew this system&amp;rsquo;s designers had made some tough decisions. They&amp;rsquo;re more hardheaded than a guy who decides to let his HD DVD promotional T-shirt survive another year.